As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users are information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems, e.g., computer, personal computer workstation, portable computer, computer server, print server, network router, network hub, network switch, storage area network disk array, RAID disk system and telecommunications switch.
When installing an operating system on an information handling system having hard disk controllers, e.g., controllers for Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks or Resilient Array of Independent Disks (RAID), and/or Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI), etc., required storage device software drivers must be loaded during text mode setup of Microsoft Windows operating systems. Due to limitations of the Windows text-mode setup, and in future versions of the Windows operating system, the required storage device software drivers must either already be included in the Windows operating system installation media, e.g., compact disc (CD) or be manually provided and installed by an information handling system user or administrator having an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) storage device driver on a media to be loaded into the information handling system in a similar fashion as the Windows operating system media may be loaded therein.
The computer industry is moving away from floppy disk drives for cost, security and storage capacity reasons. Thus installation of OEM storage device drivers not found on a Windows operating system installation media (e.g., CD), may require using other types of removable storage media such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) floppies and/or floppy disk emulated USB keys to provide the storage device drivers during installation of the operating system on the information handling system.
In order for the installation of OEM device drivers not found on a Windows operating system installation media to be successful, the user or administrator has to find the right storage device drivers either OEM bundled storage device driver media, or from the Internet and save the drivers on a floppy disk media. Thus, a person must always be physically present to hit a hot-key during a very short time window of a device installation phase. While it is possible to install the correct operating system storage device driver in this manner, it is relatively a complicated and time consuming procedure, especially when installing operating system software onto hundreds of information handling system computer servers. Floppy disk media has limited storage capacity and thus may not be sufficient for some storage device drivers, and may not have the capacity for storing more than one storage device at a time.